Volunteering

The Club is volunteer-driven. While a small staff is hired during the summer to help with sailing programs, administration and maintenance, members are expected to contribute to the smooth running of the club.

There is a wide range of volunteer activities that are suitable for different skills and age levels. Volunteering is made easy through an on-line system that posts all volunteer positions for the entire season gryc.ivolunteer.com and newsletters advertise key vacant spots.

Volunteer Requirements

Each Adult Member: A minimum of 4 credits of volunteering every season are required. One credit is equivalent to 4 hours of work, for a total of sixteen hours.

Children 21 and over, who are part of their parents’ membership will be required to provide a minimum of two days (4 credits or 16 hours) of volunteer work, unless we receive a message from the main member that their adult child aged 21 or over is not living in Chelsea â€‹during the summer months and is thus unavailable to accomplish his / her volunteer hours. Kindly send a message to this effect to membership@gryc.ca.

Children aged 16 to 21 are required to provide a minimum of half a day (1 credit or 4 hours) of volunteer work.

Children under 16 years are not required to volunteer.

Should any family member accumulate more than 4 credits, the remainder may be applied to the full family total required.

Example: Family of 4 people includes 2 adults, one child under 16 and one child 18 years old = 9 credits required or 36 hours.

Examples of Credit Values

In the volunteer system each volunteer position has pre-identified the number of hours assigned.

Credit = approx 4 hours

Club Night volunteers (various duties such as set-up, serving and clean-up)

Sunday Race Official / Assistant (Point Duty)

Sunday Crash Boat Operator / Assistant

Fleet Maintenance positions

Credits = approx 8 hours or full day event or activity

Finale Regionale Organizing Committee Member

Finale Regionale Safety Boat Operator

Credits = approx 12 hours

Race Official Team Leader

Credits = approx 16 hours

Sunday morning Crash Boat or Race Official Volunteer Coordinator

Regatta Committee Chair

Team Leader organizing facilities projects

Using the on-line Volunteer System

The volunteer website is at gryc.ivolunteer.com. There are two ‘tabs’ – one for volunteer sign-up and one for event participant registration.

Instructions for Signing up as a Volunteer or Event Registration as a Participant

For volunteering/registering click on any event and find a specific task or work group that you would like to volunteer/register for.

Click on the button above.

You will be asked to enter the email address at which you would like to receive emails and your first and last name (and sometimes home/cell phone #).

For volunteer positions, you will also be asked to enter the “Family name of the club primary member.” This will be used to tally the volunteer hours for each family.

For registration events you will be asked to enter how many adults and children you are registering.

When you sign up with iVolunteer, you will be sent a confirmation email – the first time this occurs you must open that email and click on the confirmation link to confirm.

The webpage at that link in the confirmation email will keep track of all your volunteer/ registration commitments for GRYC.

Important – If you need to cancel your volunteering/registration please go to that link in your confirmation email and click on “Cancel”.

If you do not receive the confirmation email, check your spam filter and allow e-mails from ivolunteer.com.

If you have any technical problems using iVolunteer, contact ivolunteer@gryc.ca. For questions regarding a specific event, email the event contact person at the email address given on the volunteer page.

Record of Credits

In the long-term the on-line system will replace the manual log book. Since this year is a transition, we recommend that members use the on-line system as the Primary system of record, and keep the manual log book up to date as a back-up.

Members may track their volunteer credits through the link provided in the e-mail confirmation.

Board Officials and Team Leaders can track volunteer credits and vacant volunteer positions at any time. At the end of the season, credits will be totaled for each family and single membership to determine if the volunteer requirements have been met.

Discrepancies in the System

It is the responsibility of members to ensure they maintain an accurate record of their volunteering. If a member has volunteered for a position but did not sign up in the system, then he/she must do so to ensure the volunteer hours have been recorded. Similarly, if a member does not follow through on the volunteer commitment after registering, the member must cancel their volunteer registration. This may be done before or after the event.

Questions?

If you have any questions about a specific event, or you notice an error in the volunteer information, send an e-mail to the individual noted in the instructions at the top of the page.

Penalties for Not Fulfilling Volunteer Requirements

Penalties for not meeting the volunteer requirements include:

Fine of $300 for a Family membership,

$200 for an Adult membership.

Failure to fulfill the volunteer requirements several years in a row, without providing reasonable grounds, may result in loss of membership (By-laws Article 4.4). As an example, reasonable grounds include illness.